Details
REUCHLIN, Johann (1455-1522). De Accentibus et Orthographia Linguae Hebraicae. Hagenau: Thomas Anselm, February 1518.
4° (246 x 177mm). In Latin and Hebrew. Title with large woodcut of Reuchlin's coat-of-arms, 3 pages printed in red and black, 9 pages with woodcut musical staves and notes, large woodcut printer's device on final leaf. (Occasional slight spotting, first quire with light dampstaining to outer margin.) Contemporary limp vellum (lacking ties, backstrip defective, endpapers torn). Provenance: D. Ripli of the church of S. Giorgio Maggiore, Venice (inscription on title).
FIRST EDITION OF THE EARLIEST EXAMPLE OF HEBREW MUSIC PRINTING. Reuchlin was the first of several 16th and 17th-century Hebraists to take an interest in scriptural cantillation: his transcriptions have been of prime importance in recent researches to asses the amount of deviation that has taken place in systems of Hebrew cantillation over the last 2,000 years. As a cabalistic scholar, Reuchlin was also doubtless drawn to the subject by contemporary hasidic theories of angelic harmony and 'secret melodies' with symbolic meanings, as well as by the current interest in ancient languages. Adams R-380; Groves New Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London: 1980, IX, pp.612-632.
4° (246 x 177mm). In Latin and Hebrew. Title with large woodcut of Reuchlin's coat-of-arms, 3 pages printed in red and black, 9 pages with woodcut musical staves and notes, large woodcut printer's device on final leaf. (Occasional slight spotting, first quire with light dampstaining to outer margin.) Contemporary limp vellum (lacking ties, backstrip defective, endpapers torn). Provenance: D. Ripli of the church of S. Giorgio Maggiore, Venice (inscription on title).
FIRST EDITION OF THE EARLIEST EXAMPLE OF HEBREW MUSIC PRINTING. Reuchlin was the first of several 16th and 17th-century Hebraists to take an interest in scriptural cantillation: his transcriptions have been of prime importance in recent researches to asses the amount of deviation that has taken place in systems of Hebrew cantillation over the last 2,000 years. As a cabalistic scholar, Reuchlin was also doubtless drawn to the subject by contemporary hasidic theories of angelic harmony and 'secret melodies' with symbolic meanings, as well as by the current interest in ancient languages. Adams R-380; Groves New Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London: 1980, IX, pp.612-632.